Which characters get encoded?

The five characters that are syntactically significant in HTML — ampersand, less-than, greater-than, double quote, and apostrophe — are always encoded as named entities. Optionally, every non-ASCII character is encoded as a numeric reference so the output is pure ASCII.

What is the difference between a named and a numeric entity?

A named entity uses a mnemonic, like © for the copyright sign. A numeric entity uses the Unicode code point, like © or hexadecimal ©. Named entities are more readable; numeric ones work for any character even without a defined name.

Does the decoder handle hexadecimal entities?

Yes. It decodes named entities, decimal numeric references like €, and hexadecimal references like €, all back to their original characters.

Is my text sent to a server?

No. All encoding and decoding runs in your browser with plain JavaScript. Nothing you type is uploaded or stored.

Why would I encode all non-ASCII characters?

Forcing pure-ASCII output avoids encoding mismatches when a file, database column, or email gateway does not reliably handle UTF-8. The text renders identically once decoded by the browser.

HTML Entity Encoder / Decoder

HTML entities are escape sequences that let you include reserved or non-ASCII characters in HTML without breaking the markup. For example, < renders as a literal less-than sign instead of starting a tag. This free tool converts text to entities and back, helping you debug templates, sanitise attribute values, or prepare characters for an HTML email.

How it works

When encoding, the tool walks your text one character at a time. The five characters that have special meaning in HTML — &, <, >, " and ' — are replaced with their named entities. A handful of common symbols (such as the copyright, trademark, and currency signs) also get readable named entities. If you enable the non-ASCII option, every remaining character above code point 127 becomes a numeric reference &#NNN; based on its Unicode code point, producing pure-ASCII output.

When decoding, the tool matches each &...; sequence and resolves named entities from its table, decimal references like €, and hexadecimal references like €, restoring the original characters.

Example and tips

Encoding <a href="x">café & co</a> produces <a href="x">café & co</a>. Always encode user-supplied text before placing it inside HTML to prevent broken layouts and cross-site scripting. Inside attribute values, encoding the quote characters is essential so they do not prematurely close the attribute.